Saturday, June 12, 2004

Reel To Reel:
The Chronicles Of Riddick

How It Rates: ***
Starring: Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, Colm Feore
Rated: PG-13
Red Flags: Sci-Fi Violence, Mild Language

Preconceived Notions: It's a sequel to Pitch Black, which I haven't seen. But Vin Diesel is back, and he hasn't missed yet.
The Bottom Line: Diesel's ultra-cool persona and sharp dialogue add spice to what's otherwise another CGI sci-fi film.

Vin Diesel will kick your puny butt and then tell you in that gravelly cigarette voice: "You should have gone quietly." I like him a lot in this picture.

In this sequel to Pitch Black, Riddick (Diesel) takes on the evil Necromongers. As Dench's character explains in the opening voiceover, they will convert you to their religion or kill you. Mostly it's the latter.

Riddick is the only hope of stopping these guys, being the only person left in a race the bad guys fear. But first he's gotta get some bounty hunters off his back and do a little housekeeping on Helion, a peaceful planet in the Necromonger crosshairs. They're quickly running out of targets, as their armies roll over anything faster than American troops in Baghdad. What are these folks gonna go when they run out of places to conquer?

Much of the picture, though, is spent with Diesel trying to get away from the bounty hunters -- or maybe con them somehow as part of his plan. He does plenty of kung-fu fighting, fast as lightning, before slipping back into wise-ass anti-hero mode.

Amusing through all of this is the dialogue -- not just Diesel's, but everybody's. In the old days, you would expect a musical stinger after one-liners like: "You mentioned HER!" It's almost self-parody. But boy, is it fun for the ears.

Vin Diesel has made better pictures than this (XXX ranking as my favorite). But he didn't do badly. However, with anybody else in the role, this would have been just another episode of Star Trek.

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